Dina's Kissing Couple Bas Relief Tutorial

Bas Relief is a favorite technique of mine. This particular kissing couple design is from a book by Kate Venter, Sugar Decorating Filigree, Flowers, & Flooding. Venter used a color flow technique, whereas, I decided to try bas relief. For starters, cover an 8" x 10" board with light blue or light green fondant and let dry. Then trace the kissing couple design with a #2 pencil and cut out.

Using your tracing paper cut-out as a guide, cut out the kissing couple in fondant. Affix on the fondant board with water, gum glue, or egg white. Best to color all your fondant now according to the colors you wish to use for the couple. When working on the sugar art, water, gum glue or egg white is used to attach the fondant.


In bas relief, you must remember to complete the parts of the drawing that are behind other parts of the drawing first. Thus the girl is finished in the following order: socks which are inside the shoes are made first, then the shoe in the background, the shoe in the foreground, the dress, the apron, the apron strings, the arm, and then the hand. (Work on the boy next, since the girl's bonnet is the last piece of clothing to be completed).

Close up view of the bas relief kissing couple.

Close up look at how the hands are created. Use a cell stick to open up the wrist of the figure and dampen with water, egg white or gum glue and attach the hand.